 Kelly Cutrone |
Fashion PR pro Kelly Cutrone has charged hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons with a rape attempt in 1991.
She's among a dozen women who have alleged Simmons, who founded Def Jam Recordings, launched Phat Farm clothing line and created Rush Communications—one of the nation's biggest African-American owned media companies—with rape or sexual assault.
Cutrone told the New York Post's Page Six on Dec. 14 Simmons was a casual acquaintance who misled her into going to his apartment and then tried to take her clothes off. She fought him off but "the energy of going to the police and pressing charges against him was overwhelming to me."
Cutrone is only going public now because she's upset that Simmons launched #NotMe on Instagram for men to refute sexual accusations. "It's a call to every man who wants the right to abuse women to continue," she told the Post.
Via his lawyer, Simmons released a statement to "vehemently deny" the charges levied against him. "These horrific accusations have shocked me to my core and all my relations have been consensual," he said.
Cutrone founded New York-based People's Revolution, which has an office in Los Angeles, in 1996. It has worked for Bulgari, Paco Rabane, Longchamp and Valentino.
Earlier, she helped run Cutrone & Weinberg, which counted Frank Sinatra and Eartha Kitt as clients. Cutrone has starred in MTV's "The Hills" and America's Next Top Model."
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